Posted on 11/22/2004 6:09:17 AM PST by dukeman
Montgomery County, Maryland is a blue county. Next door to Washington, D.C., the county went 66 percent to 33 percent for Senator Kerry in the recent election. So when the Montgomery County School Board rubber stamped a set of committee recommendations expanding sexual education content to include condom demonstrations and left of center views on homosexuality, I suspect the members of the board expected little resistance from parents.
Surprise! In fact, after two years of stonewalling efforts from parents to register their views, the school board members may find themselves facing voters in a recall effort.
Rumor is that the school board thinks the whole thing will blow over. However, one glance at the website Recallmontgomeryschoolboard.com provides evidence that the parents are serious. Given such strong reaction concerning values, the school board may need to glean some lessons from the last election.
Maryland is hardly a fly over state but there are rural and mainstream folk in this county who are plenty incensed at the kinds of changes envisioned for sex education. For instance, in a newly approved film, “Hope is Not a Method,” a teen girl is shown skillfully placing a condom over a cucumber. However, this is not an episode of Veggie Tales Gone Wild. Students are also treated to a discussion of the virtues of fruit flavored condoms. In the new curriculum, students are informed that homosexual experimentation may be normal.
Some parents are not amused. According to articles in both The Washington Post and The Washington Times, the school board meetings have been peppered with protesting parents. According to a Jon Ward article in The Washington Times, Tim Simpson, pastor and parent of a high school student, said that school officials "have definitely stepped over the line in assuming the majority of parents in this county accept this."
For their part, school board members seem perplexed and annoyed at such spasms of moral outrage. According to The Washington Times, Patricia O'Neill, board vice president huffed: "There are plenty of opportunities for people who choose to be informed to participate on the committee.” The committee she speaks of is the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development. This committee has been meeting periodically during the past two years at the direction of the school board for the purpose of improving the school’s health education. The recommendations at issue are largely the work of this body.
Given the controversy generated by the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, the school board should not be surprised by upset parents now. Throughout its two years of working on the sexuality materials, the committee refused to include any professional resources that promoted abstinence only or presented a balanced view of homosexuality. Parents did go to those meetings and complain. Three members resigned in protest. Letters to the editor were published. For a previous column, I called the school district’s health education coordinator, Russ Henke, and asked him why the committee was excluding peer reviewed research that gave a diversity of views concerning sexual orientation. He said the school board would be able to reverse any recommendations they felt were inappropriate. Apparently, the school board has no interest in doing so.
This is a brewing controversy worth watching. Since the election, Democratic ruminating has included remorse over being perceived as out of touch with mainstream American “values voters.” Many Democrats including Senator Joe Lieberman have suggested the party become more moderate on social issues. In this blue county, will there be a shift toward the moral center on this matter of sexuality education? For the current school board’s part, they seem to be puzzled by the concern of mainstream parents. The parents seem to feel that the board’s actions are another example of cultural erosion in their own back yard.
The school board could just wait this out and hope that the parents go away. Or they could learn some lessons from current events.
Warren Throckmorton is director of college counseling and an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College. His research "Initial Empirical and Clinical Findings Concerning the Change Process for Ex-Gays," was published in the June 2002 issue of the American Psychological Association's publication Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. Contact him at ewthrockmorton@gcc.edu.
"How To" condom demo's in a PUBLIC SCHOOL???
What, no Kama Sutra 101?
A recall effort of school board members, a la California, would be a wake up call to the blue-liberals who think social experimentation is a public virtue.
I drive through northern Montgomery County on my way to work everyday, and it is much more conservative than its southern cohorts, and that's who might be driving this issue. I hope they keep up the fight.
The reputation of Montgomery County public schools is sterling.
This school system represents the cream of public school systems.
This is the sort of school system that folks imagine their own to be like when they say wonderful things about their own public schools.
In the new curriculum, students are informed that homosexual experimentation may be normal.
The indoctrination continues. Documentation here:
| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
Never gonna happen. Poor Senator Lieberman is deluding himself. The democrat party has indisputably succumbed to the Lord of the Flies.
One need not be a Christian (Or a Jew!) to recognize the value of the wisdom in The Bible. One needs be only mildly observant to recognize that the democrats are the antithesis of those teachings, and, having entrenched themselves in so many of our institutions, have taken the bit in their mouths and are running with it.
The fight is on!
Go parents! Don't let the liberal establishment use government power to force their liberal views of sexual morality down your children's throats against your will!
They need to not only vote the current school board out; they need to put together a slate of conservatives to vote in.
Next semester. First things first.
We may not have to be concerned about the left making gains in red areas.......
We need not be concerned only with them making gains, we need to ride them out of town on a rail (tar & feathers at tax payer’s expense is just fine with me!).
My hat’s off to you for having the stomach to lurk at such a place.
P.S. Lots of “vanity” posts over there, sounds like.
They have a TREMENDOUS number of vanity posts! Things like "I'm thirsty, what should I do?" and "I'm too depressed to visit my porn sites." They really come across as a bunch of children.
Gay agenda in our public schools...how nice...how about teaching the kids how to spell their name....
My cousin lives in Montgomery County. He goes to a private school in the District.
Homosexual Agenda + Moral Absolutes Ping.
There's so much wrong with this picture I don't need to say even a word.
Except this: Run - don't walk - and rip your kids out of school. Homeschool - private school - charter school. Something. Don't let people with sick agendas experiment with your children.
Help your grown kids get your grandchildren out of public screwels.
And maybe take a look at the public schools in your area, even if you don't have schoolage kids. What are they teaching for sex ed?
Let me and ItsOurTimeNow know if you want on/off either of these pinglists.
That's a very interesting website. It's amazing how school board members can be so arrogant that they refuse to consider the legitimate complaints of those who pay for the public schools.
The parents want to recall the board. I don't think you can do that in Maryland.
What scares school boards and public school officials the most is if their customer base disappears. These parents might just have to draw a line in the sand and tell the board to either drop the homosexual indoctrination of their kids or the kids won't be there to indoctrinate.
It's very effective. I've seen it done in a minority school district even. Parents disagreed with a policy and told the board not to implement it. If it was implemented, they would remove their children. The board did not implement the policy. They weren't going to take the chance.
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